Beneath the Plastic Leaves
by P.T. Tucker
Summary: Marlene's lost her doll. Denzel's lost his jacket. They're both liars.


"I ain't seein' it!" Barret called over his shoulder. He scanned the area with his flashlight. "You sure you dropped it in here?"

"Yep! Just keep looking!"

"Damn kids, gettin' into places they shouldn't be," Barret muttered as he continued his search. How in the hell Marlene had lost her doll in this busted up ShinRa office building was beyond him. Clearly someone wasn't doing their damn job watching the kids, and he knew just who to blame. He was gonna give ol' Spikey a talking-to when he next caught sight of the squirrelly bastard.

Honestly, Tifa leaves for one damn week…

Something pink and purple caught his eye in the next room over, tucked halfway behind a small potted plant. His lips quirked upwards as he drew closer. Damn thing was still struggling on, after all this time. A fighter.

The room was dark, save the bit of light that streamed in through a crack at the top of the wall, illuminating the plant and little else. As if some higher power had made sure the building broke in exactly the right place so it would survive.

Just like the flowers in the church.

He smiled again, this one bittersweet.

Barret jumped back, his arm already shifting shape as a door popped open on his left.

Well, speak of the devil.

"What the hell you doin' here?" His arm shifted back into its usual non-weaponized state. "If you were thinkin' you'd find Marlene's doll 'fore I could find out about her little adventure all the way out here in the middle of damn nowhere, you're too damn late."

Cloud blinked at him. "Marlene's doll?" His brow furrowed as he glanced behind him. "Denzel said he lost his jacket in here."

And then, just like that, the demons showed their true colors as Cloud's PHS rang. He didn't answer it - he never did, the inconsiderate asshole - and when it went to voicemail Barret could hear Denzel's unspoken confession loud and clear.

"Uh, I guess my jacket wasn't in there after all. So I'll just go home now. But you guys should keep going to the center! Just…" There was a pause, and Barret and Cloud took the moment to give each other a knowing look. "…because. Don't worry, I'll take Marlene back with me. Um…Bye."

Barret snorted when the line went dead, while Cloud sighed.

He grabbed Marlene's doll and gave it a few quick pats to get the dust off. "Well, you wanna see what they got in store for us?" Barret looked for a place to tuck the toy before handing it over to Cloud, who somehow managed to slip it into his sword harness without even looking.

"It looks fairly stable in here," Cloud said, those bright blue eyes never straying far from the ceiling. "The building probably won't fall on us."

Barret snorted again. "You mean on _me_. We both know you'd dodge."

Cloud didn't deny it.

They continued to 'just keep going' until they reached what must have been some kinda ShinRa lounge area in the middle of the building. It'd seen better days, for sure, but was surprisingly intact for a place that'd survived Meteor. The furniture all seemed to be in working order and the large windows that looked in towards a fake park were only a bit cracked. There wasn't even that much dust around the place.

Barret frowned at that last part. Someone, or two someones, had been in here a while.

"Damn kids."

Building looked ready to fall apart at the seams, and they were in here _dusting_.

"Yeah," Cloud said, "I'll have a talk with them."

Barret scoffed. "You? Mr. 'I'm gonna go fight this big ass dragon all by myself'? _I'll_ talk with the kids." Someone around here had to knock some sense into the little troublemakers, and the guy who acted like dying was the intended outcome of every encounter wasn't exactly 'Mr. Safety' in his humble opinion.

Cloud shrugged and didn't argue. He pointed towards the park.

A picnic basket had been left in the middle of it.

He let Cloud test the door out, standing a ways back in case the entire thing shattered. The hinges creaked with every centimeter, but otherwise didn't seem about to bust, so Barret followed him into the glass dome. He looked up once they were inside. No cracks up top. It probably wouldn't collapse on them.

His attention shifted back to the basket. There, resting on top of it, was a folded piece of paper with a smiley face drawn on the front in crayon. Inside it read: "Please don't be mad, daddy! I wanted you and Cloud to have fun together! Love, Marlene. P.S. Denzel helped."

"Marlene's getting pretty good at writing," Cloud commented.

Barret nodded. Most of the letters were hers, only a few of the words having been traced over by Denzel to correct the spelling.

"Well?" Barret asked, tucking the letter into his boot.

Cloud raised an eyebrow. "Are you asking me out on a picnic date?"

Barret felt his cheeks warm. "Don't go gettin' all mushy on me. I jus' think the kids went to all this trouble of settin' it up. The least we could do is eat the damn food."

Mako-bright eyes lit up the park as they roamed around the fake sanctuary. Barret looked away when something crossed his face. Something sad.

Something about her.

"Yeah, okay," Cloud answered after a moment, his voice low. "Let's do this." He stabbed his sword into the fake grass and settled down beside the picnic basket.

He gave Barret a rare grin as he tilted his head up at him. "We never did get to finish our date, after all."

Barret spluttered. "I told ya! That wasn't no date! I jus' needed to get some air."

He glowered as he plopped himself down beside Cloud, his arms crossed. He couldn't keep it up, though. Spikey still had on that stupid ass grin of his, the one he'd used to wear before everything went to hell. Before he _remembered_ just how much hell it'd been. Barret knew it wasn't right to expect a man to pretend to be something he wasn't, but sometimes…

Sometimes he missed how Cloud had been in the beginning. An arrogant son of a bitch that didn't stand for nothing, but not sad. Not guilty.

The Cloud of now wasn't horrible or anything. Just…barely living.

"Thinking about something?" Cloud asked, handing him the water bottle that definitely didn't contain no water.

Opening it, he sniffed the contents before sipping cautiously. Ah. Juice. He'd been expecting booze.

Good thing too. Barret could hold his liquor with the best of 'em, but Spikey was on a whole 'nother level. And he didn't much feel like getting shit-faced and forcing the not-SOLDIER to carry him back home over his damn shoulder.

"Barret?"

"It's nothin'. Jus' thinkin' 'bout the past." He kept getting lost in his thoughts today, didn't he? 

"Yeah."

They ate in silence for a while before Cloud blurted, "I remember this place. Sort of. He used to come here and hang out with the secretaries." Cloud shook his head, a faint grin twisting his lips. "Friends with everyone."

Barret humphed. "No different than you." Cloud stared. "I ain't the one who plays cards with some freaky vampire or the one who lets a damn talkin' cat help fix my bike."

Barret liked the others well enough, they were good people, but Cloud was selling himself short if he thought he wasn't out there making friends with all kinds a weirdos.

"Guess you're right." Cloud leaned back on his elbows and looked up towards the false sky ShinRa had painted on the inside of the glass. "Guess I never thought of it that way."

"Yeah, well, now you know," Barret answered, more gruffly than he'd intended. It was hard not to get rough when he was trying to ignore how Cloud's shirt had ridden up when he'd sat back, exposing his damn perfect abs.

Damn Marlene for setting this up. Damn Denzel for helping. Damn Cloud for reminding him of why'd he'd asked him on that date years ago. Damn him for ending it so soon, back then.

He hadn't been certain what he wanted at the time. Or if he even had the right to want it, after Myrna. After Corel. And he certainly hadn't thought he was in the same league as some beautiful, cocky, super soldier.

Barret looked at Cloud, who'd picked up a nearby 'leaf' - nothing more than a bit of plastic shaped to look like one - and was running it through gloved fingers, a pensive look on his face.

Funny how things changed.

"So, you wanna tell me who was supposed to be watchin' Marlene when she did all this?"

Cloud's eyes widened. "…Vincent?"

Uh-huh.

Barret wasn't no fool, but he let it slide for now.

He had all afternoon to get the truth outta him.


End file.
